Search Results

In this paper, an experimental and numerical analysis of combustion process and knock occurrence in a small displacement spark-ignition engine is presented. A wide experimental campaign is preliminarily carried out in order to fully characterize the engine behavior in different operating conditions. In particular, the acquisition of a large number of consecutive pressure cycle is realized to analyze the Cyclic Variability (CV) effects in terms of Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP) Coefficient of Variation (CoV). The spark advance is also changed up to incipient knocking conditions, basing on a proper definition of a knock index. The latter is estimated through the decomposition and the FFT analysis of the instantaneous pressure cycles. Contemporary, a quasi-dimensional combustion and knock model, included within a whole engine one-dimensional (1D) modeling framework, are developed. Combustion and knock models are extended to include the CV effects, too.

The OpenFOAM® CFD methodology is nowadays employed for simulation in internal combustion engines and a lot of work has been done for an appropriate description of all complex phenomena. At the moment in the RANS turbulence models available in the OpenFOAM® toolbox the turbulence modulation is not yet included, and the present work analyzes the predictive capabilities of the code in simulating high injection pressure fuel sprays after modeling the influence of the dispersed phase on the turbulence structure. Different experiments were employed for the validation. At first, non-evaporating diesel spray was considered in a constant volume and quiescent vessel. The validation was performed via the available experimental spray evolution in terms of penetrations and spatial/temporal fuel distributions. Then the Sandia combustion chamber was chosen for diesel spray simulation in non-reacting conditions.

The transient heat transfer behavior of an automotive catalytic converter has been simulated with OpenFOAM in 1D. The model takes into consideration the gas-solid convective heat transfer, axial wall conduction and heat capacity effects in the solid phase, but also the chemical reactions of CO oxidation, based on simplified Arrhenius and Langmuir-Hinshelwood approaches. The associated parameters are the results of data in literature tuned by experiments. Simplified cases of constant flow rates and gas temperatures in the catalyst inflow have been chosen for a comprehensive analysis of the heat and mass transfer phenomena. The impact of inlet flow temperatures and inlet flow rates on the heat up characteristics as well as in the CO emissions have been quantified. A dimensional analysis is proposed and dimensionless temperature difference and space-time coordinates are introduced.